Forgiveness

    To forgive is a virtue, but no one has ever said it is easy. When someone has deeply hurt you, it can be extremely difficult to let go of your hate. However, forgiveness is possible, and it can be surprisingly beneficial to your physical and mental health. People who forgive show less sadness, anger and stress and more hopefulness, according to a recent research.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Try the following steps:

    Calm yourself. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You can take a couple of breaths and think of something that gives you pleasure: a beautiful scene in nature, or someone you love.

    Don't wait for an apology. Many times the person who hurt you does not intend to apologize. They may have wanted to hurt you or they just don't see things the same way. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Keep in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily mean becoming friends again with the person who upset you.

    Take the control away from your offender(冒犯者). Rethinking about your hurt gives power to the person who causes you pain. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you understand your offender, you may realize that he or she was acting out of unawareness, fear, and even love. You may want to write a letter to yourself from your offender's point of view.

    Don't forget to forgive yourself. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} But it can rob you of your self-confidence if you don't do it.

A. Why should you forgive?

B. How should you start to forgive?

C. Recognize the benefits of forgiveness.

D. Try to see things from your offender's angle.

E. For some people, forgiving themselves is the biggest challenge.

F. To make your anger die away, try a simple stress-management technique.

G. If you wait for people to apologize, you could be waiting an awfully long time.

    Plants are very important living things. Life could not go if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals.    So animals and man need plants in order to live.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering plants.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed, some have two, three or four, and some have many seeds.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. They grow from spores（孢子）. Spores are very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as the seeds, when these spores fall on wet and shady places, they usually grow into new plants.

A. There are about half a million kinds of plants in the world

B. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight

C. But a few fruits have no seeds at all

D. Not all the plants grow from the seeds

E. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us

F. Flowering plants can make seeds

G. Most non-flowering plants don't grow from seeds

    Life can be a lonely thing without friends. Acquaintances (熟人) are easy to come by but true friends are a whole other story. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Learn these four steps if you'd like to be a true friend that can be relied on.

    ●Be present for their highs and lows.

    If you're absent during my struggle, don't expect to be present during my success.

    （Will Smith）

    It's easy to be there for our friends when they ask us out for fun things. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You might not feel comfortable while spending time with an emotionally weak person on the verge of tears, but true friends are always there when they're needed the most.

    ●{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

    （Ernest Hemingway）

    Give your friends the gift of silence so they can drop their baggage and get on with living.

    ●Accept them as they are.

    Happiness can exist only in acceptance.

    （George Orwell）

    If you can't accept people as they are, you will never know the feeling of true friendship. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    ●Forgive the past.

    Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

    （Buddha）

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} If so, you should understand that even the best of us suffer from the occasional slip of the tongue. Holding onto anger over a small mistake will make you look petty (小气的), so let it go.

    Healthy eating is not just about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or avoiding the foods you love. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If you form the following simple habits, you'll soon notice the difference.

    It's not just what you eat, but how you eat. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to swallow on the way to school or work.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Chew your food slowly, tasting every bite. We tend to rush through our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavours of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.

    Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can speed up your digestion. Eating small, healthy meals throughout the day keeps your energy up.

    Avoid eating at night. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple dietary adjustment—eating only when you're most active and giving your digestive system a long break every day—may help to control your weight. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Fill up on colorful fruit and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Colorful, deeply colored fruit and vegetables contain higher amounts of vitamins and minerals, and different colors provide different benefits.

    The UN's Millennium Development Goals included the ambition that by 2015 all the world's children would complete primary school. This has largely been achieved: nine out of ten children are now enrolled. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Even though most of the world's children go to school, an awful lot of them learn pretty much nothing there. According to a recent World Bank study of seven sub-Saharan African countries, half of nine-year-olds cannot read a simple word and three-quarters cannot read a simple sentence. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Several recent studies suggest education technology can help  It seems to bring about bigger improvements in poor countries than in rich ones.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} That doesn't mean buying computers for schools in the hope that children will understand how to use them, a stupidity on which plenty of money has been wasted. Instead, it means providing schools with software that children can use with minimal help from an adult. The software gets things right more often than the teachers do, adjusts itself to the child's ability, and sends teachers instructions about what they are supposed to be teaching. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Technology is no panacea(万灵药) . {#blank#}5{#/blank#} And authorities need to take teachers into account. But education technology can help greatly — by monitoring pupils and teachers alike, assisting the best teachers and, most important, making up for the failings of the worst.

A. The reason is terrible teaching.

B. The achievements are really great.

C. However, the figure is not as impressive as it sounds.

D. Technology plays more and more important role in teaching.

E. Good traditional teachers are not outdated, and are never likely to be.

F. Meanwhile it allows the authorities to check on whether the teacher is in the classroom.

G. Some of the scarce resources being spent on teachers could therefore be better spent on education technology.

    Friends should always be honest with you, right? So when they lie, it can be really hard to take. You want to trust your friends and that means knowing that they'll tell it to you straight no matter what it is. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Why does this happen?

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    One of the biggest reasons friends lie is simply to avoid hurting your feelings. Some people don't understand the difference between being gently honest with a friend and being so straightforward that they leave a verbal wound. They choose to avoid these two extremes in the form of a lie.

    They feel embarrassed.

    Sometimes friends will lie about things in their life because they are too embarrassed to admit the truth. Maybe they are going through a rough time and they just don't want you to know about it. Avoid trying to badger (纠缠) your friends into telling you what's wrong. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Avoid an argument with you.

    Perhaps your friends know that if they tell you the truth, you'll get angry with them. Make sure that if a friend tells you something unpleasant, you don't overact. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you do end up arguing, do it in a respectable way.

    Exclude you.

    Lying isn't always a sign that friends are trying to protect you, however. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When you find out with certainty that your friend is lying to you, try and face it. If you feel your friend is lying because he or she doesn't want to be around you, that's your wake-up to move on.

A. Protect your feelings.

B. They want to be your closer friends.

C. But a friend who lies isn't always trying to hurt you.

D. Consider what's being said and why your friend is telling you this.

E. Being honest and making a sincere effort can keep the friendship strong.

F. Sometimes they lie because they don't want you to be included in their plans.

G. Instead, make it clear that you are there for them when and if they are ready to talk.